Kerala Police

Infobox Government agency
agency_name = Kerala Police
nativename =
nativename_a =
nativename_r =
logo =
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formed = 1956
preceding1 = Travancore State Police
preceding2 = Cochin State Police
preceding3 = part of the Police force in Malabar District, Madras State
dissolved =
superseding =
jurisdiction = State of Kerala
headquarters = Thiruvananthapuram
employees =
budget =
minister1_name = V. S. Achuthanandan
minister1_pfo = Chief Minister of Kerala
minister2_name = Kodiyeri Balakrishnan
minister2_pfo = Home & Tourism
chief1_name = Raman Srivastava
chief1_position = Director General of Police
chief2_name =
chief2_position =
parent_agency = Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of Kerala
child1_agency = Law and Order (General Executive)
child2_agency = Armed Police Battalions and Traffic
child3_agency = Crime Branch,CID
child4_agency = Special Branch, CID
child5_agency = Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau
website = http://keralapolice.org/
footnotes = "To Serve and To Protect"

The Kerala State Police is the law enforcement agency for the state of Kerala, India. Unlike many countries like the United States, there are no local, county or district police forces in Kerala. Kerala Police has its headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital. The Kerala Police Academy is situated at Thrissur. The motto of the force is "Mridhu bhave dhrida karma" which means "Soft in Temperament, Firm in Action" in Sanskrit .

Branches

The Kerala Police has a general executive branch police wing, which mans the police stations in various towns and cities. There is a Crime Branch wing, which basically deals with sensational crimes or crimes which span across districts. The Special Branch wing is the intelligence wing of the state police to deal with terrorism and anti-national activities. These two branches do not generally have uniform clothing.

The riot control wing of the State Police are based on two units. The Armed Police (AP) Battalions and the Armed Reserve (AR) units. The riot control unit uses water dispensing unit called "VARUN" to disperse the rioters. They also uses grenades like tear gas shell, stinger grenade, dyemarker, smoke grenade etc. They uses batons made of fibre and wood. The Armed Police Battalions, is also where recruits undergo basic training. After service for stipulated time, based on the recruit's home district he gets transferred to the Armed Reserve Unit in his own district. After serving there, the constable is moved into a local police station in his district. There is an option for a recruit constable to stay back in the Armed Reserve and Armed Police Battalions. Then his promotions would be quicker, but he will not be stationed at any local police stations.

, and gets posted to various police stations. They later pick up ranks to become Inspector, Deputy Superintendent or even a Superintendent based on the service records.

The lower post police unit is a Police Outpost generally under command of a Head Constable, or Assistant Sub Inspector. Above which comes a police station under command of a Sub Inspector (assisted by Additional Sub Inspectors if required). Two or more police stations forms a Police Circle, under an inspector (generally called CI or Circle Inspector). More than one circle form up a Police Sub Division which would be commanded by a Deputy Superintendent of Police (designation is Assistant Superintendent of Police for IPS officers). Many sub-divisions form a police district under a District Superintendent, above which comes Police Ranges and Zones. The police officers from the central govt. service of Indian Police Service (IPS) generally command the higher echelons of the Police Force. Every inspector can ear-mark approximately 15 police constables within his jurisdiction to form the Crime Squad. They work in non-uniform clothes (or "mufti"), and would be on the look out for pick pocketing, prostitution, hoodlum activities, and drug trafficking etc.

Battalions

Kerala Police have seven Armed Police battalions which are:
* 1st Bn. located at Ramvarmapuram, Thrissur
* 2nd Bn. located at Muttikulangara, Palghat District
* 3rd Bn. located at Adoor
* 4th Bn. located at Mangattuparamba, Kannur District
* 5th Bn. located at Maniyar [Pathanamthitta]
* Malabar Special Police located at Malappuram, Malappuram District
* Special Armed Police located at Trivandrum
* State Rapid Action Force (SRAF) located at Pandikkad, Malappuram District

Ranks

The ranks used in the Kerala Police are as follows
* Director and Inspector General of Police (DGP)
* Additional Director General of Police (Addl.DGP)
* Inspector General of Police (IGP)
* Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG)
* Superindentent of Police (SP)
* Assistant Superindentent of Police (ASP)/Deputy Superindentent of Police (Dy.SP)
* Inspector of Police ("Circle Inspector" or CI)
* Sub-Inspector of Police (SI)
* Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police (ASI)
* Police Head Constable (HC)
* Police Constable (PC)

NOTE: A new rank of Assistant Sub Inspector (Grade) was introduced recently. This rank how ever is more of a nomenclature to be used in official records. As per the new government policy Head Constables who have 15 years of service gets automatically promoted to Assistant Sub Inspector. Since the pay scale of the Head Constables would be the same of the starting pay-scale for an ASI, no additional burden is levied on the state exchequer. The ASIs (Grade) will wear the same rank insignia as that of a normal ASI.

There was a plan to promote every ASI with a service of 25 years to a Sub-Inspector but this is yet to be implemented. As of today Sub-Inspector vacancies reserved for promoties gets filled up based on the seniority of the Assistant Sub-Inspectors in a police range.

Kerala Police Academy

Kerala Police Academy is at Thrissur (Trichur) which began functioning in May, 2004. Spread over an area of convert|348|acre|km2, the Academy is designed to have a capacity of training 1950 trainees of various ranks (1500 constables, 400 officers and 50 women constables) at a time, which is one of the highest in India. Built at a cost of Rs. 220 million, the Academy has indoor training facility to train 1200 people at a time, a main parade ground of convert|7.5|acre|m2 and a sports complex ground of convert|3.5|acre|m2. The Academy has got a convert|300|yd firing range. The MT school of the Academy can train 300 drivers at a time. There is also a police dog training center and kennel which can train 18 dogs at a time.

Kerala Highway Police

Police squads are manned by the general executive branch, with police men being taken on a shift basis from the police stations close to the highways. The mandate of the Highway Police is to ensure that the highways remain open and all materials which may cause traffic accidents are removed. They are also to prevent over-speeding, and issue speeding tickets.

On July 2007, a new series of Highway Police vehicles were put on the streets by the Kerala Police. Forty two (42) Chevrolet Tavera vehicles are now to patrol the highways of Kerala. Unlike the older Toyota Qualis Vehicles these new vehicles are equipped with stretchers, reflective cones, more noticeable light bars and also speed radars.

Kerala Highway Police have a dedicated phone line number which can be used from anywhere in Kerala. The phone number is 98461 00100. This number is only used to pass on information for the Highway Police (and not to the general Control Room).

Honors & achievements

*Palakkad town south police station bagged the award for the best police station in India and the second best in the south Asian region. According to the award committee of Altus Global Alliance of Netherlands, it had a score of 85 when the average score in Kerala was 65 and the national average score was 75. [cite web |url=http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/04/stories/2008020452250300.htm|title=Palakkad Town South police station gets honours |publisher=The Hindu]

*Kerala police had successfully solved Chelambra bank robbery case, considered to be one of the biggest bank theft in the state’s history. The robbers made a hole on the ground floor of the bank and got away with 80 Kilograms of gold and Rs. 25 lakhs in the early hours of 30 December 2007. It was a challenging task for police as the robbers had left no clues and were given many calls to divert the track of the enquiry. However, the police have arrested four main culprits on 28 February 2008 and recovered 80% of the looted gold and cash. [cite web |url=http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/29/stories/2008022954860300.htm|title=Police leave a mark in crime detection |publisher=The Hindu]

Issues

Lack of modern methods

The Kerala Police lacked of modern training, weapons and up-to-date kind of investigation. Even for a robbery case, the police had to rely on outdated methods. The antiquated laws regulating the police should be replaced with modern methods. The state had also failed to raise a police force that reflected social realities. According to a senior police officer, the social audit and criticism by society were very crucial for the functioning the police as the police wielded broad power. [cite web |url=http://www.thehindu.com/2005/11/23/stories/2005112322330300.htm |title=Custodial death a setback for police: DIG |publisher=The Hindu]

Custodial deaths

According to the state human rights commission that custodial deaths is in a rising stage in Kerala also. Up to 30 June 2006, there are 25 such incidents registered, 39 in 2005, 49 in 2004 and 41 in 2003. [cite web |url=http://www.achrweb.org/reports/india/AR07/kerala.htm |title=Indian Human right report 2007 |publisher=ACHR] [cite web |url=http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/23/stories/2006082309580300.htm |title=Police seminar on custodial deaths |publisher=The Hindu]

Criticism

On 11 March 2008, The High Court of Kerala had strongly criticized Kerala Police and expressed its displeasure at ‘politicization’ of police in Kannur district and observed that the only solution to bring an end to the political clashes was to deploy central forces. [cite web |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/In_Kannur_manslaughter_a_competing_sport_HC/articleshow/2856816.cms |title=In Kannur, manslaughter a competing sport: HC
publisher=The Times of India] [cite web |url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/High_Court_has_no_confidence_in_Kodiyeri_Police/articleshow/2856586.cms |title=High Court has no confidence in Kodiyeri Police |publisher=The Economic Times]

References

Further read

* [http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/Nov132005/national20163720051112.asp Custodial Deaths]
* [http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050709/edit.htm#6 Corruption]

See also

* B. Sandhya

External links

* [http://www.keralapolice.org Kerala Police official website]
* [http://www.keralapolicehistory.com Kerala Police History]
* [http://www.tvmcitypolice.org Trivandrum City Police Commissionarate]
* [http://www.kochicitypolice.org Kochi City Police Commissionarate]
* [http://www.thrissurpolice.com Thrissur District Police]
* [http://www.malappurampolice.com Malappuram District Police]